About

Netro - Scientifically Water Your Garden

$26,305

pledged of $25,000 goal

76

backers

Meet the Watering System of the Future

The Netro Sprite & Whisperer is a cloud based watering system that is designed for effortless use in residential irrigation. It helps to reduce unnecessary water usage and keeps your garden healthy. This advanced Wifi-enabled water control system utilizes a solar powered sensor, the Netro Whisperer, to monitor and regulate water consumption. This sensor wirelessly collects temperature, sunlight and moisture level in the soil which is then analyzed on the cloud server. Based on the collected data and advanced gardening knowledge, Netro customizes your watering schedules to suit your specific watering requirements, thus reducing overall water usage and taking pressure off both the environment and your budget.

Key Features

The Ultimate Watering Solution

Fully Automatic

Unlike the existing smart watering systems which require users to manually setup or tune their systems, Netro is the first home-use irrigation controller that schedules itself completely. Netro knows how much water your plants need and the best way to water them. You can completely rely on Netro and enjoy your saved time.

The Intelligent Self-Learning Features

Netro is like a sponge, constantly absorbing useful information such as soil types, weather conditions and sprinkler behavior.

Soil holds water. Sandy soils drain quickly and do not retain water well. Silt creates smaller pores in the soil and results in better water retention. Clay soils have a tremendous capacity to hold moisture and tend to drain slowly. Soils are rarely pure sand, silt or clay but rather a mixture of all three. They’re often grouped into one of 12 textural classes based on the relative proportions of these particles. Fortunately, you don’t have to go through the complicated research to determine your soil type. Netro accurately measures the water capacity and drainage rate of your soil, making sure your soil always receives the perfect amount of water at the perfect time.

Proper use of sprinklers is another key to a healthy yard. While a good sprinkler arrangement with even coverage is the first step, frequency and duration of watering also plays an important role. The different types of sprinklers often present distinct watering patterns. For example, drip systems provide slow and steady water while a spray head generates water much faster but is more sensitive to water pressure. Netro can recognize the patterns and make the best use of all your sprinklers.

Netro learns the conditions of your sprinklers and soil automatically in a short time

The A.I. Gardening Expert

Customized Irrigation Management (CIM): Netro maximizes the usage of water to readily make it available to plants. CIM promotes deep root growth, reduces watering frequency and draws more oxygen into the roots, leading to a lusher landscape.

Run-Off Prevention (ROP): Netro prevents runoffs in several ways. For example, it breaks long watering cycles into smaller ones to make water infiltrate the root zones.

Evapotranspiration Reduction (ETR): Netro tries to water in the early morning when evaporation is minimal and water pressure higher. Netro minimizes watering in the middle of a day because the sun will evaporate water before it can soak into the soil.

Plants and Sprinkler Protection (PSP): Netro safeguards your plants and your sprinkler system. Watering will automatically be disabled when temperatures are very high to protect your plants and eliminates night watering, frequently the cause of soggy lawns which attract disease. The winterization feature disables watering during cold temperatures entirely.

Netro will consider all these factors with the most advanced simulation technology

The True Plant Whisperer

Most smart watering controllers only use weather information and site conditions to roughly estimate how much and how often to irrigate.

Netro watering system does more than that. The sensors work in your ground and "talk" to your plants . They keep track of the most important factors that determine irrigation: sunlight, temperature and the moisture level of your soil. The sensors provide you with reliable watering and continuously train and improve the scheduling for even better results by learning the characteristics of your soil and sprinklers for each individual zone.

Watering Restrictions

Depending on climate conditions, California, Texas, Nevada and many other states have strict rules about when and how much water is allowed for home irrigation. Netro honors your local watering regulations if exact location is provided and will inform you when restrictions apply. With Netro, you will not need to worry about fees and penalties. Netro will automatically upload your local water conservation regulations to your controller and cut down your water usage based on these requirements.

Example of watering restriction schedule in Las Vegas 2016

The Netro App

Monitor and control your irrigation system remotely

Remote control from anywhere with internet access.

Supports multi-devices and multi-users

Simple and intuitive user interface designs

Works on phones/tablets (iOS 8.0+ or Android 5.0+) and web

The most convenient schedule manager

Although Netro can dance on its own, you still have full control of your garden. Through this convenient schedule manager you can tell Netro about your watering preferences and Netro will optimally adjust the schedule for you. For example: Tell Netro to only water lawns between 5am and 7am. Tell Netro to keep a watering budget across all zones. You can easily add your own watering schedules for special needs, for example over-seeding, new plants and additional landscaping.

Monitor your garden and your water bill

Netro monitors and shows the key factors for a healthy garden so you know exactly how your garden is doing. It shows the breakdown of the watering amount and cost and also how much you saved by using Netro.

The effortless watering system

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Easy 15-Minute Setup

You do not need to change your current sprinkler system. Sprite works with your existing sprinklers (the pumps, pipes and nozzles). You just need to replace the controller/timer with Sprite. Installation is very easy and usually takes around 15 minutes. We will provide detailed instructions to help you install and test the system.

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How To Place The Sensors

Each zone is unique, with different plants, sunlight and soil conditions. We recommend to place one sensor in each zone for best watering results. However, if two zones are very similar, they can share one sensor.

Whisperer should be placed in a spot that represents the overall zone condition. The solar panel collects power even if there is no direct sunlight. Ideally, the solar panel should face the sky rather than a wall or tree.

Sensor arrangement for a typical landscape design

Designed for both Practicality and Beauty

Netro Sprite installed in the garage

Netro Whisperer becomes part of the garden

How does Netro keep your garden healthy and green?

Netro is the expert. It knows the best time to water your garden, making sure your lawn will never be over-or under-watered while at the same time keeping the roots strong.

How does Netro keep your garden watered while you are on vacation?

Netro will arrange the watering schedule on its own. Or you can remotely control Netro even if you are on the other side of the world.

How does Netro cut your outdoor water usage in half?

Netro Sprite will look up the local weather and historical climate data to minimize the water consumption. Netro Whisperer ensures that your garden is only watered as needed.

Do you have problems with your current irrigation system?

Netro solves all these problems for you!

Traditional vs Regular Smart vs Netro

The Bundles

The bonus T-shirt

Technical Specifications

Development

We are a team in Portland that is passionate about technologies and new life styles. The team is international with professionals from US, China and Germany. We are very proud of our products and services. We hope our hard work will make people's life easier and happier.

The final designs are rooted in numerous attempts

Production Schedule

Help the environment: Back Netro Residential outdoor water use in the United States accounts for more than 9 billion gallons of water each day, mainly used for irrigation. Experts estimate that as much as 50 percent of water is wasted due to overwatering and inefficient irrigation. Smarter irrigation control technologies can significantly reduce overwatering by applying water only when plants need it.

Proven results Tests by the Irrigation Association (IA) and the International Center for Water Technology at California State University – Fresno, have shown that smart irrigation controllers save up to 20% more water than traditional irrigation controllers.

Make our world a better place We could save $435 million in water costs and 120 billion gallons of water across the country annually from not overwatering lawns and landscapes by using Netro Watering System. That equals the annual household water needs of nearly 1.3 million average American homes.

According to the August 9, 2016, U.S. Drought Monitor, moderate to exceptional drought covers 21.8% of the contiguous United States.

Risks and challenges

Stepping up from prototype to full manufacturing is always a challenge with risks. Luckily, we have experienced engineers and designers behind the products. We only use mature chipsets and components of best quality. Our cloud service is built on Amazon servers with backup service on Microsoft servers, so it is very unlikely that both service are down.

Our hardware is designed for OTA (over-the-air) updates, so it will always be up to date with the latest features. Additionally, it can adapt to the up and coming standard for home automation. Our apps will be updated if there are new features or issues. You can get the newest versions from App Store or Google Play.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $49 or more
About $49

Whisperer Only

Use the solar-powered sensor to monitor your plants remotely, even if you don't have a sprinkler system. When the water, temperature or light levels of your plants need special attention, the Netro App will alert you.

Add $49 for each additional sensor.

You will get a limited edition Netro T-shirt. See the project description for a preview.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $199 or more
About $199

Compact Garden

For homes with a smaller number of watering zones.

Be one of the first in the world to get the Netro bundle: Sprite + Whisperer x 2! You can use one sensor for your front yard and the other sensor for your backyard. The sensors automatically learn the soil types, weather conditions and sprinkler behavior for the ultimate scientific and effortless watering.

In addition to the unique Netro T-shirt, you will get a pair of garden gloves with the Netro logo, also only available at Kickstarter.